Celebrity

All The Celebs That Were In Waterloo Road Pre-Fame

Because Bridgerton’s Phoebe Dynevor & Regé-Jean Page aren’t the only ones...

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The countdown to the Waterloo Road reboot has officially begun, with the show returning to our screens on Jan. 3. Whilst fans and former actors express their excitement, we’re buckling in for nostalgic reruns and are happy to see so many familiar faces. The world now recognises Phoebe Dynevor as Bridgerton’s wildflower Daphne, but eagle-eyed viewers may have noticed that the actor was on Waterloo Road long before she found fame. Besides starring in Doctor Who and Emmerdale, Dynevor’s first big TV role was in the school-based soap aged 14, where she starred as Siobhan Mailey between 2009 and 2010.

However, the 27-year-old isn’t the only British actor to spend the early days of their career in Waterloo Road. In fact, Dynevor isn’t even the only Bridgerton star to do so. The spoon worthy (did I say spoon? I meant swoon…) Duke of Hastings, Regé-Jean Page, also appeared in two episodes of the BBC show as Guy Braxton, a graphics and product design teacher who joined the staff of the comprehensive school after it moved to Greenock, Scotland. So too did Victoria and Doctor Who star, Jenna Coleman.

Keep scrolling for all the stars that got their start on Waterloo Road.

Phoebe Dynevor

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Dynevor has taken on a number of roles between her TV debut on Waterloo Road and playing Miss Bridgerton herself. You might recognise the actress from TV shows such as Prisoners Wives, The Village and Dickensian. Dynevor later played Lottie Mott in the TV adaptation of Snatch alongside fellow Waterloo Road alumni Lucien Laviscount.

Regé-Jean Page

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Whilst keen fans have already spotted Bridgerton’s Duke of Hastings in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, Regé-Jean Page played the role of teacher Guy Braxton Waterloo Road well before his days as Simon Basset. Page also had roles in Roots and ABC's For The People before he became Netflix’s most eligible bachelor.

Jenna Coleman

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Perhaps one of the most well-known of the Waterloo Road alumni, Coleman went on to have significant starring roles in Victoria and Doctor Who after her stint as Lindsay James at the comprehensive school. Coleman even had a small role in Captain America: The First Avenger and played Marie-Andrée Leclerc in the BBC crime miniseries The Serpent.

Lucien Laviscount

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Laviscount cut his teeth on the usual stomping grounds of British TV with roles in Coronation Street and Grange Hill even before he reached Waterloo Road to play student Jonah Kirby. Since, he has had roles in TV shows including Scream Queens, Snatch, and Katy Keene, and more recently, Emily In Paris.

Tom Payne

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Tom Payne played former pupil Brett Aspinall in the third season of Waterloo Road from 2007-2008, and has landed a number of high-profile roles since. He landed roles in Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day and HBO’s Luck following his stint on the school-based drama, but it was landing a role in The Walking Dead that shot him to fame. Payne recently starred as the title character, Malcolm Bright, in Fox’s police procedural drama Prodigal Son.

Chris Geere

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Chris Geere took on the role of music and drama teacher Matt Wilding in the BBC drama between 2007-2012, and went on to play Arvin Fennerman in Modern Family from 2018 until its finale in 2020. Geere also starred alongside Ryan Reynolds and Bill Nighy as Roger Clifford in the 2019 film Pokémon Detective Pikachu, which is a long way from his Waterloo Road roots.

Jodie Comer

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Back in 2010, Comer played a small role in Waterloo Road’s sixth season as Sarah Evans. And a lot has changed in Comer’s life since her brief appearance. She starred in BBC’s drama Doctor Foster and garnered huge applause for her performance as serial killer Villanelle in thriller series, Killing Eve. She also appeared in a series of films such as Free Guy alongside Ryan Reynolds and the 2021 film, The Last Duel.

Jason Done

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Whilst Jason Done had starred in a few old school British shows, such as Merlin and Where The Heart Is, before his role in Waterloo Road, the latter is his most memorable one from the noughties. From 2006 to 2013, he played Tom Clarkson, the English teacher on the beloved show before moving onto an illustrious television career. Since then he starred in Can’t Pay We’ll Take It Away, Monsters Inside Me, Time, and most recently in the BBC One drama Four Lives.

Adam Thomas

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Thomas was part of the original cast of Waterloo Road in 2006 where he played troubled student Donte Charles and guess what? The star is actually returning for the reboot, with some of his own family members too. He’s probably best known for his role as Adam Barton in Emmerdale from 2009 to 2018 but the actor also finished third in the 2016 season of I’m A Celeb…Get Me Out Of Here.

Linzey Cocker

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Cocker played a villainous role in Waterloo Road; she was the headmaster’s daughter who was notorious for sleeping with one of her teachers. While the actor was on the show for two seasons, it launched her career into well-known roles to follow. She played Josie in the teen drama Wild Child, Sam Swan in BBC’s White Gold, and also starred as Marie in television series Our Girl.

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